China's compulsory quarantine measures abolished, and applications for permission to travel to HK and Macau soar... 1M people in 5 days : Korean coverage

With China abolishing its quarantine measures for immigrants on the 8th and opening its borders, the number of applications for entry permits to travel between China and Hong Kong is increasing. About one million people have applied for permission to travel to Hong Kong and Macau in the past five days.

According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), the State Immigration Service of China held a press conference to announce that 998,000 people from China applied to enter Hong Kong and Macau from January 8th to the 12th. The number of new passport applicants reached 353,000.

China opened its borders on the 8th and from the same day resumed allowing mainland Chinese residents to visit Hong Kong for tourism and business purposes.

An official from China's National Immigration Service said, "The number of people crossing the border has increased sharply, and by the 12th, an average of 490,000 people entered and exited the country every day. It increased by 26.2% from the same period in 2019."

The majority of tourists (424,000) cross the border by land, making the largest use of the Futian checkpoint in Shenzhen.

The number of travelers who traveled by air was only about 11% of the same period in 2019, with 11,000 passengers per day using Shanghai's Pudong Airport, the largest number.

The number of people entering China is about 250,000 per day, a 54.7% increase from before the quarantine was lifted, which is slightly higher than the number of people leaving China.